Welcome back! We hope you’re all recovering nicely from a holiday weekend full of friends, family and food. We’re ready to jump into the week and start things off with a Gatsby-Godfather-esque wedding in Italy. Amilea + Graham wanted their guests to feel as though they’d been transported for the day to a simpler and slower time, where they could relax in lawn chairs and be served fancy cocktails by snazzy dressed servers. This wedding’s charm shines through their romantic venue, Villa del Cielo, in Siena, overlooking the hills, the bride’s handmade dress, groom’s endearing smile and their photographer, Alessandro Roncaglione, who Amilea describes to be “a magic man, whose vision and style is perfection”.
Be still our hearts. This photograph is timelessly stunning!
In preparing for the wedding we discovered the cost of hosting our closest friends for a week in Italy was the same as a small wedding in Los Angeles. We e-mailed everyone to see if they could afford the airfare if we provided a place for them to lay their heads and food for their bellies. From there, a destination wedding was born! The whole wedding week cost about $12k. We decided to have the wedding in a small town rather than in the main square at Siena to save on cost and to make the wedding more intimate. The town rarely performs marriages let alone marriages for out-of-towners so when the mayor of Soviclle, Alessandro Masi, took time out of his schedule to marry us, it really was quite an honour.
Graham, in secret, composed and wrote a song for Amelia called, Dolcezza (Dole-che-za). Over the days leading up to the wedding guests were given the chorus to sing along to when Graham sang to her. As you can see by the photos, it tore Amilea to pieces.
The Godfather-esque element we mentioned earlier? This is it! Members of their bridal party arranged for everyone to do the Godfather wedding walk while humming the theme and carrying candles the entire way from ceremony to dinner.
These two love Italy so much that they’re currently working on buying a farm in Tuscany right now. We wish them luck and congratulate them on a beautiful wedding!
Photography: Alessandro Roncaglione / Venue: Villa del Cielo / Restaurant: Ristorante Montalbuccio / Bride’s dress: designed and made by bride / Shoes: Linea Paolo / Groom’s suit: Indochino / Bowtie + kerchief: made by bride using same silk as her dress
